The discussion around Councillor Pat McGinlay's motion to also Live Stream the half hour public access session prior to a council meeting came with several servings of trepidation. The Public Access session, which, for those who don’t know, takes place in the half hour prior to the meeting commencing, providing members of the community with the opportunity to make presentations and ask questions of council, on council-related matters that are not listed on the meeting agenda. Following an excellent presentation by Peter Cormick councillors suggested that the Live Streaming of Public Access might lead to grandstanding, soapboxing and all manner of abuses.
VIDEO: Peter Cormick addresses Council Sept 25th 2018
They were reminded very clearly that all of the procedures surrounding the Public Access sessions were already clearly contained in the Code of Meeting Practice and that there was no difference whatsoever between what currently happened and what was proposed other than a staff member pressing RECORD >>> Irrespective of this it was discussed at length and offered that such a complex modification of Pressing the >>> Record button would require considerable thought and require a rewrite of the Code of Meeting Practice and therefore require a full report, public exhibition, submissions and a final resolution. Of amusement to the gallery was the fact that Councillor Nathan managed to reveal that, under the current Code of Meeting Practice, it does not state that a speaker is bound to talk solely on Council related issues. This bought a chuckle from the gallery, one of whom mused of possibly register to speak for five minutes with a possible extension of three of the differences in texture and flavour of South Coast oysters.
In the end the councillors managed to create enough smoke and mirrors around the motion to simply flick the RECORDING BUTTON to ON resulting in the final decision to have a "thorough discussion" in a briefing session on the issue. With a look of exasperation Councillor McGinlay reiterated "Turn on the Switch" The next time this will come up will be when Council are advised that the Office of Local Government new Code of meeting Practice has been legislated and Council will be required to review its own by way of public consultation
Council showed apprehension at simply pressing the Record Button for Public Access sessions choosing instead to defer the motion until a date unknown.
